Blyskavka Drone Profile

The Blyskavka is a Ukrainian fixed-wing strike drone copied from a captured Russian Molniya. Ukrainian reports price it at about $820 to $880. The Blyskavka carries an 8 to 9 kg warhead about 40 km, or up to 80 km with a relay. Reports from 2025 to May 2026 name Vyriy as the maker, while a standalone Blyskavka company claims the drone by mid-2026. The volunteer group Ostanniy Kapitalist announced the Blyskavka in August 2025 as a reverse-engineered strike drone. In October 2025, the Ukrainian World Congress reported the delivery of 200 units to Special Operations Forces, while Vyriy Drone stated that about 100 units had been used in combat. In January 2026, Vyriy told Ukrainska Pravda that more than 60 units of Ukraine's defence forces use the Blyskavka.

Blyskavka at a glance

What the public record establishes

The volunteer group Ostanniy Kapitalist announced the Blyskavka in August 2025 as a reverse-engineered strike drone. In October 2025, the Ukrainian World Congress reported the delivery of 200 units to Special Operations Forces, while Vyriy Drone stated that about 100 units had been used in combat. In January 2026, Vyriy told Ukrainska Pravda that more than 60 units of Ukraine's defence forces use the Blyskavka.

The distinction between platform identity and event attribution matters. A manufacturer page can establish what a drone is; an official military release, UN report, or conflict-monitoring source is needed to establish where it appears in a war. Where those records do not align, this page keeps the uncertainty visible.

This is a non-operational reference page. It explains the manufacturer, platform family, and public conflict record without providing instructions for building, targeting, deploying, or modifying a weapon system.

What the Blyskavka Drone Is

The Blyskavka is a Ukrainian fixed-wing strike drone built around the no-fuselage layout of the Russian Molniya. According to reporting from UNITED24 Media, Ukrainian engineers reverse-engineered the Russian Molniya into the Blyskavka, keeping a wooden centre section, two longitudinal tubes in place of a fuselage, and a front-mounted electric motor. Like the Molniya, the Blyskavka is a low-cost kamikaze drone used in the Ukraine-Russia War.

Reported performance figures vary across reporting outlets and developer releases. Militarnyi and UNITED24 Media report an operational payload of up to 8 kilograms and a maximum range of 40 kilometers. The Ukrainian World Congress lists a 9 kilogram payload over a 40 kilometer range, citing armoured vehicles, underground bunkers, and entrenched positions as targets. The Blyskavka company's own website, blyskavka.tech, advertises a maximum range of 80 kilometers with an operational radius of 40 kilometers for its base BLYSKAVKA-1 model.

Reporting by Ukrainska Pravda quotes the unit purchase price at 35,000 Ukrainian hryvnias, equivalent to about 820 United States dollars. In a May 2026 Euromaidan Press article citing Militarnyi, Vyriy said the base Blyskavka stays at around 880 dollars. Euromaidan files that article under its Industry Focus label, which it uses for advertorial content. UNITED24 Media's August 2025 calculation from the volunteer fundraiser, 300,000 dollars for 350 drones, works out to about 857 dollars per unit and likely includes launchers and control modules.

Molniya vs Blyskavka

The Blyskavka keeps the low-cost layout of the Russian Molniya. Vyriy told Militarnyi in December 2025 that the drone is built on a deeply reworked captured Molniya, with Ukrainian electronics, warheads and components. Atlant Aero builds the Russian Molniya, which 19FortyFive describes as made from plywood, foam and aluminium.

Published performance numbers for both aircraft differ from source to source, so the table gives each figure with its source. The one like-for-like comparison comes from UNITED24 Media in August 2025. UNITED24 Media put the original Molniya at 30 to 35 km and up to 7 kg, against 40 km and up to 8 kg for the Blyskavka.

How the Blyskavka Was Copied from a Captured Molniya

The Blyskavka started as a Molniya captured from Russian forces. The volunteer collective Ostanniy Kapitalist announced on 5 August 2025 that Ukrainian engineers had successfully reverse-engineered a captured Russian Molniya, as reported by UNITED24 Media. Forces News described the original Russian drone in October 2024 as two longitudinal aluminium tubes with a plywood centre section and wings, launched by pneumatic catapult.

Ukrainian developers kept the Molniya's aerodynamic layout instead of redesigning the airframe. As reported by Ukrainska Pravda, Vyriy said its engineers analysed the captured Russian drone, fixed its shortcomings, improved its reliability, and then standardised, codified and serially produced the Blyskavka. The drone launches from a pneumatic catapult and needs no runway.

In May 2026, Euromaidan Press, citing Militarnyi at the Wild Drones exhibition in Kyiv, reported that Vyriy had added a front aerodynamic cowling. Vyriy says the cowling raises flight range by about 30 percent without significantly changing the price. Reporting from UNITED24 Media in July 2026 noted that a redesigned fairing on the Blyskavka-2 helped sustain flight times of up to 45 minutes.

Who Makes and Flies the Blyskavka

Attribution for the production of the Blyskavka shifts across Ukrainian media sources and public announcements. An October 2025 report from Militarnyi identified the manufacturer as Vyriy Drone, also tagged as Vyriy Industries. Ukrainska Pravda and Euromaidan Press spell the name Vyrii. In December 2025, Militarnyi reported that engineers from the Company Group Team, a community of veterans and serving soldiers, originally developed the design. Vyriy then took over production and scaled it up, according to the same report. For wider industrial context, see this site's index of Ukrainian drone companies.

In July 2026, UNITED24 Media described Blyskavka as a Ukrainian defence company, citing an interview with its founder published by Militarnyi. The Blyskavka company's own site, blyskavka.tech, lists the Blyskavka-1 and Starlink-equipped Blyskavka ST under serial production without making any reference to Vyriy. The exact corporate relationship between Vyriy and the standalone Blyskavka company is not detailed in published sources.

In October 2025, the Ukrainian World Congress reported the delivery of 200 Blyskavka strike drones to an unnamed Special Operations Forces formation. In January 2026, Vyriy told Ukrainska Pravda that more than 60 units use the drone. As of October 2026, blyskavka.tech claims more than 150 user units, a figure that comes from the Blyskavka company itself.

Flight Range and Relay Capabilities

The range of the Blyskavka depends on whether it flies on direct radio control or through a relay. Militarnyi and Ukrainska Pravda both give a range of up to 40 kilometers. Ukrainska Pravda puts the Blyskavka's field deployment time at around 10 minutes.

Vyriy reported via Militarnyi that pairing the drone with a relay extends tactical reach up to 80 kilometers. Reporting by UNITED24 Media noted that the Blyskavka company built its own relay carrier and a ground mast that allows launch without a relay drone.

The Starlink version trades payload for reach. On its product specifications page, blyskavka.tech records an 80 kilometer operational radius and 160 kilometer maximum range for its BLYSKAVKA ST model using Starlink satellite control. The blyskavka.tech site lists maximum payload for the ST model at 6 kilograms, compared to 8 kilograms on the radio-controlled Blyskavka-1.

Guidance and Terminal Attack Systems

According to Ukrainska Pravda, the Blyskavka uses ExpressLRS (ELRS) radio control with an analogue video channel and supports automatic target acquisition. Vyriy, which Ukrainska Pravda names as the manufacturer, claims accuracy of around two metres for this targeting system, a figure no outside source has verified.

UNITED24 Media reported in July 2026 that the Blyskavka company fitted the first Blyskavka-2 drones with the Norda-8 terminal-guidance system. In October 2025, a Vyriy Drone representative told Militarnyi that variants could add battery capacity, fibre-optic control or a better camera for reconnaissance-strike use.

The warhead depends on the target. In reports from UNITED24 Media, developers stated the drone carries either shaped-charge cumulative munitions against armoured vehicles or fragmentation warheads against personnel. In July 2026, UNITED24 Media noted that the drone ships without a standard warhead or dedicated relay, and the Blyskavka company plans its own warhead and detonator.

Ukraine's Other Molniya-Class Drones

The Blyskavka is not the only Ukrainian fixed-wing strike drone built to match the Russian Molniya layout.

In April 2026, manufacturer General Chereshnya unveiled the Khmarynka strike drone, documented by Euromaidan Press. The Khmarynka carries up to 7 kilograms over up to 50 kilometers. Euromaidan Press, citing Militarnyi, gives the Khmarynka a top speed of 140 kilometers per hour and a 196-centimetre wingspan. General Chereshnya said a first batch of 150 Khmarynka drones would go to Ukraine's Defence Forces free of charge for combat feedback.

A third comparable platform is the Grim LA-80 developed by GrimTech, detailed by UNITED24 Media following its presentation at the MSPO 2026 defence exhibition in Kielce. The Grim LA-80 carries a payload of up to 5 kilograms and has a range of up to 80 kilometers. GrimTech offers it with radio, digital video or Starlink control, and a test batch is being prepared for front-line trials.

What Remains Unpublished

No source gives the Blyskavka's total production or monthly output. The only volume figures are the 200 drones delivered to Special Operations Forces and Vyriy's October 2025 statement to Militarnyi that it was scaling toward thousands of units a month.

No source has established the Blyskavka's combat success rate. While Vyriy acknowledged to Militarnyi in October 2025 that roughly 100 units had flown operational combat missions, the representative explicitly stated that insufficient data existed to assess frontline strike effectiveness.

The two-metre accuracy figure comes only from Vyriy, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda. The 30 percent range gain from the front cowling, reported by Euromaidan Press, is also a Vyriy claim that no outside source has checked.

Wars covered

• Russia–Ukraine War — 2014–present; full-scale invasion from February 2022